


In Another Universe

by beominure



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, Fantasy, Fluff, LMAO, M/M, Mutual Pining?, Pining, Requested fic, au in an au, beomjun - Freeform, but im a clown so that didnt happen, fluff-angst, ghost - Freeform, ghost - parallel universe, i told myself, sookai, this is supposed to be finished before this year ends, txt fic, tyunning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28501134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beominure/pseuds/beominure
Summary: Kai was drowned in the middle of the sea when a boy saved him, and that was when he realized he wanted to live again. The main problem is, he can't return his soul to his body. And Kai isn't a believer of the parallel universe unlike Soobin - the boy that he has been with in the parallel universe - the boy living in the parallel universe. He needs to prove that he is capable of resuscitating, and that Soobin is the one chosen to help Kai get back to his body once again.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Choi Yeonjun, Choi Soobin/Huening Kai, Huening Kai/Kang Taehyun
Kudos: 4





	In Another Universe

**Author's Note:**

> before anything else, this fic is written as requested by my sister. she said she wanted to have a plot like this, and so I agreed. also because I wanted to make this as a Christmas gift to her hehe. so here's it, sis!!! merry christmas!! 
> 
> this is supposed to be published before or on December 25th but sadly I wasn't able to finish it. XD
> 
> please enjoy the story as you read <3

It takes all the will from Kai to drag himself out of the beach cottage to the shore. The waves were calm. Unlike his mind – in all knots of resentment and dejection and infuriation. His steps of darting across the hallway were mute to not be heard by his family. He was running, not mindful of the path he was in. Does it matter though? When you were at your lowest?

He was fast to get to the shoreline, there, suppressed tears have started to fall down his cheeks. In an instant, he runs into the water, feet sinking and the water level rises as he trudges. When it reaches his chest, he starts swimming in freestyle, rotator cuffs spin briskly against his shoulders. He couldn’t care less of how fleetingly the seawater has been more deepening beneath him. He has then only realized that he is still crying when he lifts his head to catch air and go back underneath.

It’s already exhausting Kai’s body. How far has he already swum? He is not aware at all. And it could be what he attains of. Go as far as he can until he can no longer endure it. It’s just the same, right? If you’re still living and depression sticks with you no matter what, you still end up suffering. But if you run away, there won’t be any pain to feel again. Selfish it may seem, but should it must be like that sometimes? Choose yourself too.

Kai rises up from the water, taking in big bags of air. After obtaining a sufficient amount, his emotional state takes over him again. Kai skreiches at the top of his lungs. Life really has to be cruel to him, huh?

Kai lets himself stay floated. But it didn’t last long, the air in his lungs isn’t enough to make him float, and Kai begins to sink slowly. Later on, bubbles form as exerted from his mouth.

_“You really love me, huh?”_

_It was a memory, flashing back into his darkening mind. A boy with doe eyes, staring intently into his own ones. They lie on his bed, feet tangled together._

_“Of course,” his own self has said, “I love you, Taehyun-ah.”_

_The boy, Taehyun, smiles fondly. He inches closer and presses soft forehead kisses. “And I, you. But more.”_

There are reasons to live in a person. At least, one. Kai has found it later than sooner. He still wants to live. But it seemed like it's vague to happen already. His body is close to writhe under its functional systems. He still wants to live, he still wants to feel the love Taehyun gives him, and he still wants to give love.

Suddenly, a jolt that has felt potent occurred into him. Weren’t his eyes already closed? Why is he blinded by white light? The next thing Kai knows, he’s already being pulled back.

Suddenly, a jolt that has felt potent occurred into him. Weren’t his eyes already closed? Why is he blinded by white light? The next thing Kai knows, he’s already being pulled back into the surface. Kai can see himself. He sees himself with closed eyes. He witnesses the scene before him – being pulled by a tall, young-looking man. He has put him in a round floater.

Kai’s brows stitch together. What is this? Is this a dream? He is following the boy who’s struggling to get them back to the shoreline, he begins swimming. When the boy reaches the coastline, he starts resuscitating him. A large amount of water spouts out his mouth.

When Kai tries pinching himself to make sure he was just dreaming, all he has ever felt was nothing. He can’t touch himself. Kai lowers his head down to see his arms and body – they are not like the ordinary ones like what humans have. Kai’s appearance is translucent blue.

“Wake up, please.” The man mutters, he’s doing his best, pumping out all the water from Kai’s lungs and give him air against his lips.

Kai returns his stare onto the lifeless body of his, and then to his hands. Kai just became…a ghost?

He respires a breath he doesn’t know he’s been holding. If he’s out of his body, then he can return. Kai walks to the two figures, with big shallow breaths, he lets himself lie over his body. But he is pushed back. Kai tries again, haplessly, he isn’t able to get back again. He releases a shaky breath. How is he supposed to be resuscitated again?

“No..bring me back to my body!”

Kai attempts again, and again, and then again. He can see the boy growing tired of resuscitating him. The boy is giving him some lips to lips, after many tries, he leans back to whisper desperately, “Wake up, wake up.”

Kai glowers, feeling remorseful for the guy. _My soul is away from my body, you can’t revive me._

Suddenly, a shrill call of his name is heard from afar. He knows that voice. When Kai flits his head to the sound, he sees his family running to him, her mother having the most fretted appearance. He bestows himself a devastating look at how his family apprehends from his state. How could this be? Why can’t he just return to his body that easily? What does even death mandate upon a human that Kai and others do not know of? Are there fiats in order to persist one’s request?

Kai can’t endure taking even a second of glance at them – he turns his back.

“Please, please..how do I return to my body back?” Kai looks up at the sky, stars sprinkled the darkness, bright and shining – unlike him. He clasps his hands infront of him, “How should I know to bring myself back from the way it was? I still want to live, I – I want to, I need to.” Kai cries, his cheeks stained unruly. He can overhear every voice they make even if they were hushed. He can hear Bahiyyih’s soft whines, his mother’s wretched fuss, and his father’s unceasing questions.

What has probably made Kai be like this, then? Why is his soul away from his body? Why can't he return back to it? So many questions entangling in his mind, so little clue to even find one. Kai wouldn't even know by now if he has to go to the greatest depths of his life to enlighten all these mysteries circling himself. He wants to freeze this moment unfurling before his eyes, wants to run to fix it, wants to do anything to bring his own body back. But how? Kai still has this forbearance lingering in him, he hopes it would take longer than he may have imagined.

░▒▓██▓▒░

Three, four, five, six, seven.

Paper hurls here and there. Some in perfect parabola and some missing out in the trash bin, before and beside. Soobin grows tired of thinking about what to write for a novel. As a writer and reader himself, he should be having more inspirations, right?

Seated on his desk chair, Soobin exerts out a long sigh. He rests his head on his palms. In a second, he hears the door to his room open. “He’s been off since, when?” It was Yeonjun’s. Soobin grunts, not having the energy to look up.

“Since this morning?” Beomgyu doesn’t sound like he’s asking. He trails behind Yeonjun, who’s flopped his way on Soobin’s supple bed, making him bounce, his elbows propped up as he leans his head on his hand.

Soobin huffs, now turning his body to the two boys who had just invaded his house. Beomgyu and Yeonjun are his best friends to the point they can barge in without any warning nor letting him know. Of course, they are Soobin’s best friends anyway. But the thing is, his best friends are the couple alone. Nonetheless, the three are like defying magnets of each other that they always have to be together so frequently – from petty to big situations. What is so special about the three’s bond is that Yeonjun and Beomgyu would always lend a hand and are ready to lean their shoulders for Soobin whenever he needed one, which is why Soobin hasn’t ever felt like he is third-wheeling.

Yeonjun and Beomgyu knowingly glance at each other before Yeonjun turns back to Soobin. “You know, Soobin-ah, you just needed some rest. That’s why you aren’t able to think of any.”

“Yeah right, and my rest days are like every single day.”

“Certainly not. You rest without thinking about your writings. Rest as in your mind zeroes of thinking anything.” He confronts.

Yeonjun is not wrong. To think that Soobin may be just inside his home, almost in the three weeks of summer – all bundled up in his blankets or in front of his laptop – mind wandering too deep. And to be honest? It consumes him to sleep. Soobin partly yearns for a little break – or is it enough?

Beomgyu must have read his mind as he says, “Let’s have our vacation in Yeonjun hyung’s beach house for a month, how’s that?” He beams, leaning on the wall. Soobin flits his head to him with broad eyes, “What?”

“One month. In his beach house in Jeju.” He points Yeonjun. “We have lots of touring options there. I’d even make an itinerary for it.” He sends a cheeky smile – Yeonjun staring in awe at him. Beomgyu has been suggesting it since then – to go to his boyfriend’s beach house and stay for a vacation, all three of them.

Soobin parts his mouth to give his sentiment, but Yeonjun cuts him. “Okay. It’s settled.”

And the boy has to smile like that? Soobin’s face becomes woozy as he stares at the pink-haired boy. He can’t not oppose them, though. Soobin also needs a vacation, it can be longer than a week, even longer than a month to invigorate himself – a rather exercise for both his mind and body to fully function well. And even a better doorway to convene all the possibilities of his to-be-established storyline.

Maybe, in the midst or after that staycation, Soobin will have to find the plot for his story to write for.

░▒▓██▓▒░

"Why isn't he answering my calls?"

Taehyun mumbles to himself. Kai just missed 36 missed calls already. This time, tonight--they could be busy talking and updating each other. _Maybe he's asleep already? Or he's still having dinner with his family? Maybe they went to stroll at a place?_ All these questions inside his head as stimulation to calm himself down, but his worry just grows more. Kai already told him their itinerary and agenda yesterday. That by this time, they would just be inside their cottage resting.

He called Kai’s sisters about it. Fortunately, they picked it up in one attempt. It was Lea. But to his dismay, all siblings do not also know of it. The words 'missing,' how the way she uttered the words of not finding Kai were not good at all, doesn't ring any relief, it just elicited the unwanted trepidation throughout Taehyun. His forehead profusely sweats. Suddenly the cold air from the inverter in his room is warm against his skin.

Minutes turn into an hour of anticipating for any text or call. His phone finally rings. "Lea.." Taehyun is almost out of breath. He can make out the sounds from the other line, he can hear a monitor and adults talking, one serious, the other worried of tone. Taehyun eyes start to water. _This can't be..._

"Taehyun...Kai, he drowned in the sea. But-but don't worry—"

As if everything was muted and were constrained into a static, straight sound, Taehyun can't concentrate anymore. He stood from his bed, legs softening. Thanks to the windowsill, his hand automatically supported himself from outbalancing. "How?" It was the only thing his mouth could speak of. The thought of Kai getting injured? Not waking up yet? Far away from him, where he can't even pay a visit?

On the other line, Lea is worried Taehyun would panic and be anxious. She paid a nervous glance at her unconscious brother on the bed. "We do not know exactly the reason why he had drowned, Tyun. But..someone, luckily found him there."

Every thing Lea knew, she gave it to Taehyun. The possible reasons of Kai swimming by himself, what the doctor said, and the details from the guy who saved him--whose name is Soobin.

After the line ended, Taehyun's breathing doubles. Five syllables he never thought he'd loathe the most to hear, "He's in a coma," gave way to his detained tears. He sobs, clutching the clothe against his heart as he repeatedly shakes his head. He wants to go, wants to leave this place as soon as he can to reach the most important person in his life.

░▒▓██▓▒░

Could this day be any more agonizing?

What Kai is witnessing at the moment is a sprinting, low-spirited Taehyun. The said boy is obviously up all night. Hair tousled, bags under his eyes evident. In such an early morning, Taehyun woke up just to get to him? It's barely ten in the morning. Lea and Bahiyyih, the only two people left in the room control their tears from the sight.

Taehyun holds his hand after he sits on the chair that is next to the bed.

"Kai.." he starts, "Why did you swim at an inconvenient time, especially at night, huh?" The last word was the softest, most fragile he has voiced. "Are you enjoying the waters too much that you wander too far?" Kai doesn't want to listen anymore, his face becomes a waterfall's upland. He turns his head away. He can't witness this scene.

Taehyun is muttering non-stop. Looking at the boy on the bed, he isn't used to the straight and cold face out of his closed eyes. He has encountered this before, but all of them were always fortuitous – Kai was just sleeping, but the Kai right now is far too different from a normal sleep. Several tubes are attached to his body. The faint beeps of the monitor have only signified Kai is still alive, but only that his eyes are closed. Taehyun was on the verge of crying out loud. But his siblings are here, it is even more difficult to contain your cries.

Taehyun doesn't know when he'll wake up, but he's hopeful he will soon be. The doctor said his hypoxia had long-drawn-out from his organs which resulted to a coma. Kai’s heart is beating and he can hear, so far, Taehyun could be at least grateful for that. Despite a puny clump of optimism left in his system. He just hopes his pessimistic side won't overcome him as days pass, more so as long as Kai is not awake.

Kai walks forward and onto Taehyun. "Taehyun-ah.." Kai raises both his hands. "Look, my soul is alive but not my body. And I can't freaking get in." He giggles, but there's sourness in there. "I will get back soon, hyung don't you worry."

He reaches to tap reassuringly the boy but his hand touched nothing, it just flapped like mist in the air. Nothing to be felt. Taehyun yawns. Kai deadpans an expression. "Why are you always like this, hyung? For once, prioritize yourself first." He whines.

"I'm sleepy, Kai. And also a bit hungry." He chuckles. Taehyun jumps from his seat when Bahiyyih responds, "We have cookies and bread here, come eat, oppa."

It occurs to Kai that he has been staring so long already at Taehyun's forlorn expression. He was in utter disbelief, as if things weren't not eristic and surreal by having no clue as to why he can't be able to return to his body. _Does death take some toll on rules, too? Just like living, are there mechanics in order to bring back one's life?_

All the thoughts inside his mind create a spindle of nettles, heavy against his head. One more look at the boy who's been staring down at his lifeless body, and unconsciously, Kai starts to cry, spilling all his emotions to the room. "Why can't I go back to my body? I'm getting more than desperate when I see them sulking because of me."

The room is so quiet, so tranquil. It breaks his heart more that he can only hear his voice.

Kai entwines his hands in front of his chest as his head tilts upward, "Please, please give me a sign how." A disconsolate beg rolls from his tongue. Tears continuously flow down his cheeks.

Wails just keep on brisking against Kai’s face. "Please...please let me bring back myself again." He wipes his tears off with his palms.

But after he opens his eyes, he is welcomed with a new, different setting, the day vanished into the night and he's propelled in a place which he can't even identify. He scans the area, it could be also a resort because at his left lies a vast sea and fine sand beneath his feet.

Kai flinches as a thunder resonated. When he followed the direction of the sound to his back, a flash of lightning appears. That is when consequently, he sees another boy, who is hunkering down. He must be struck by the lightning.

His feet drag themselves to him. He was scrunched in pain...and he was looking at Kai. As if begging from the look in his eyes.

The more he stares back, the more solid the other's gaze is. Kai blinks multiple times. _Can he see me?_

░▒▓██▓▒░

Days zoom in onto the D-day of setting their feet in Jeju. The boys readied themselves as if they are to be away for a year. Thanks to their mothers who were the saviors of their insouciance – filling their luggage until they're loaded enough. Before Soobin completely steps out their doorstep, his mother squeezed him around her arms, cooing sweet words and countlessly reminding him about being careful, vigilant, and always take care.

"Goodbye, eomma." Yeonjun and Beomyu wave at Mrs. Choi, consequently opening the door for Soobin. The driver finishes by helping Soobin putting all his things in the compartment.

As Soobin plops down to the seat next to Beomgyu, the latter giggles as he lends Soobin his very own written itinerary, which Yeonjun and Soobin also helped what to write there. Written in neat characters, Soobin scans the paper, all organized in a table categorized on the columns with the dates, time, and place. Soobin beams at the minuscule drawings on some spaces – where Beomgyu loves doing so.

This is where it starts, on this very day, their sweet, sweet vacation in Jeju.

░▒▓██▓▒░

"Soobin-ah, come here."

"Just a moment."

Soobin replies to Yeonjun. He overlooks the sea, the water, and post lights creating a glitter from the reflection. It was pretty, Soobin doesn't want to take his eyes off it. It's their second night. And Jeju has never been felt more alluring. It was as if this is Soobin's hometown all along. The start of his day was the best yet since they've come here, he thinks. The breakfast food was scrumptious – as if they were made with all the care, he can't forget the taste, he just can't.

Soobin looks at his feet paralleled to the lofty rock he's been standing on. Waves were gentle as they hit the boulders at the sides, the sound it makes has Soobin realized how much has he had missed it. Sea waves sound better sometimes than listening to music. It is more than a therapeutic feeling. It's too pleasant in the ears, and what's making it better is that you can't get over it.

He lands on the sand, knees almost fail upon keeping him balanced. Soobin waddles to the couple – who were sitting beside each other, no space, tangerine juice on their hands. It's the specialty here in Jeju. Tangerines.

"Aren't you tired, love birds?"

"I can never get tired of my baby-" Yeonjun was cut off with his coos by an irritated voice, "Shut it. I was asking if you are already tired from the long day." stress the _long_ word, "Not about your relationship."

Beomgyu cackles, leaning back from Yeonjun. "Maybe Beomgyu is sleepy already." Yeonjun states. "Let's go back then...and yeah, I am getting a bit sleepy." Beomgyu says, getting up and dusting off his shorts.

"You can go first. I will be staying for a while." Soobin declares.

But in five minutes of staying alone there, Soobin was oblivious of the nimbus clouds hovering above. In a millisecond, a thunder rang in his ears. It deafened him. He suddenly felt an electric current all throughout his body. It was the descending of the lighting. The effect crawls entirely in his veins and bones until Soobin hasn't able to resist the pain as he crouches down. Being struck by a lightning can not be unbearable. It was the worst.

It takes him a while to recover. More than a while, actually. Panting heavily, Soobin's head tilts up to find someone, anyone that may help him. He doesn't see a single person but a boy -- who was slowly walking towards him. He is clad in all white, the shirt and trousers glowing in the dark. Soobin studies the look on the boy's face. _Why does he look empty, void of emotion? While looking at him? Is this boy really that heartless not to reach any hand out to him?_ Soobin makes sure that he was really looking at his direction, at him.

The boy, Hueningkai, continues to amble towards him. The now void of emotion face transitions to a horror one. The boy just walked and walked until he's just a foot away. He sits across, he's like a lost child. "Can you see me, mister?"

Soobin's eyes slightly widen. _Why is he asking like that?_

And then it hit him. It didn't register upon him how the other boy is glowing, he's not like an ordinary physique of a human body. His body diffuses light and the surrounding he passes through. Soobin thinks this is just a dream, he was pinching his poor reddening skin numerous times.

The boy – the is undeniably pretty though, skin slightly fairer than Soobin, his defined sharp features on his face charms him.

"I can see you."

A constrained breath is released from the other. Surprise evident in his face. "Mister," he shakes his head timidly, he was about to speak but then a tear beats him over. The boy is crying and Soobin doesn't know what to do. His hands are already hovering mid-air, getting queasy.

"Um, how can I help you? What's wrong?" Is this Soobin's tone he's hearing himself? This is the softest he has ever mustered. Something about the boy changed the rhythm of Soobin's heart and then is remolded into another geste.

The boy sniffs in a cutesy way--that way what Soobin thinks. And as he studies the boy more, he looks younger than his own height, Soobin even thought he'd be younger than him. He assumes he is.

Soobin fishes for a handkerchief from his pockets. Fortunately, he found one, he then draws it close to the guy and offers it to him. "Here. I don't mind." Soobin beams.

"No, no. It's okay mister." He shakes his head, wiping his tears away. Soobin grimaces, "That is not okay, your cheeks are flooded with your tears, it needs something easier to get dry." What Soobin wants, Soobin goes for it. He is the one who initiates to wipe off the tears.

_Pat. Pat. Pat._

"There." Soobin smiles. But the boy is stupefied. An ordinary person is able to touch him? "What- You..you can touch me." He mutters to himself, but the way the words have been clear to Soobin's ears dumbfounded him.

"Yeah... I actually can?" Soobin falters. The boy gazes at him with his doe eyes, not later on he's reaching a hand to Soobin's arm.

_He can touch him._

"Mister. Don't freak out. Please promise me." The boy implores. Soobin just nods, "I will try my best...wait, I am Soobin by the way." He stretches his hand waiting to be received, which was then placed on his abruptly. "I'm thankful I met you, Soobin. I'm Hueningkai. You can call me Kai."

_Kai_. Such a sweet name.

"And what was it you're saying?"

"I'm a ghost and ghosts aren't seen by people like you..well, not you cause you can see me."

"I know why," Soobin says. The breeze gets colder as it hit their skin. Kai is astonished at how cool the other boy could be knowing he is conversing with a ghost, a rather peculiar predicament to Soobin's world. Kai doesn't know that the boy he is actually talking to lives in another different, parallel universe.

"I have been chosen."

Soobin knew all of these - the circling myths and superstitious beliefs around the globe. Many believed in them, many also don't. Prodigies say that when you are struck by lightning and that by later or sooner you find yourself encountering a ghost, you are the chosen one to help him or her change her fate. That is, which depends on how the person dies in his life. If he had a valid reason why he would want still to live, he will be revitalized. Under some conditions, but usually with one condition. And it is linked with the primary desire of the individual himself on how he wants to attain in his life or the elements that he had been missing along.

Of course, the oblivious ghost is startled again when Soobin explained all the knowledge he acquired. Knowing in Kai's universe is the mere beliefs in Soobin's world lies plausible enough, his was a fantasy created and even with vacuous credence.

They talked and talked. With Soobin becoming more comfortable of the boy. It could be how he would listen intently whenever he tells a story, or how gentle and soft his features are as he looks into his eyes, or how soft-spoken he can be.

Soobin and the rest of the people living in his world believe in a parallel universe. That the parallel universe is a solid truth told. Whilst in Kai's do not but a truth untold.

Kai should learn more about all these mysteries that lie under their noses.

"I'm still surprised." Kai laughs sheepishly. Has he ever thought of the parallel universe even? In his past existence, _existence_ \-- he did think of the conception of a parallel universe and the underlying theories about it, and certainly, he hadn't thought of the regimes of it.

"Later on, you'd get used to it," Soobin says as he smiles, "People would understand me if I am ever on my own based on what they only see and then out of nowhere I'll speak as if I am talking to someone. It's common here."

Soobin's gaze flew to the beach house at their right, and then it struck him that he's met by an astonished face from Beomgyu -- who's standing from the door frame. Mouth agape as he steps out completely to go to Soobin. It must be late that they've wondered for Soobin why he's not been going back. Soobin isn't aware of how much time he'd spent with Kai.

"Soobin!" Beomgyu looks at him in the eye without aversion. The look you see when someone is getting worried and impatient. "It has been two hours and you are here all along? What are you doing?" Beomgyu, with his knitted brows, searches for an answer from Soobin's blank expression.

"I, uh..." Soobin and Kai give a look. Soobin scratches his nape. "Something happened." Beomgyu holds his hand to help him stand up. "Let's talk about that inside." He leads Soobin in the direction of the beach house. Soobin mouths a "Follow us" to Kai.

"Beomgyu, I thought you're asleep?"

"No. We were waiting for you. Yeonjun is the one sleeping already." Beomgyu plops down the couch once they reach the living room. "Now, what on earth have you been doing there for the past two hours?"

Soobin sighs. "Where should I start..."

"Start with the reason why you've decided to stay outside."

"No actually it wasn't it..the original plan was to take some surveillance, but then something unexpected happened to me. You know the phenomenon here that when we're struck by lightning, and if we seem okay after, we're meant to change one's destiny?"

Beomgyu's squinted eyes changes to their normal size and then widens. "You mean...they could be from the parallel..?"

"Yes." Soobin grins. Kai is beside him, he tilts his head to look at him. "Oh god.." Beomgyu mutters, following the direction of Soobin's stare. He claps and stands up, "Hyung, I don't know what to feel, to be frank." Beomgyu half cackles. But if someone would, wouldn't it disprove making sense of the two-sided finis between two persons involved in the pursual of one's own?

"You're not wrong though." Soobin smiles, and then turns to Kai, "His name is Hueningkai by the way, Kai in short." Beomgyu gazes beside him, though he can barely meet Kai's eyes, "Hello Kai, err--HAHAHA!"

Beomgyu doesn't know what to say next.

Soobin laughs. "Yeah, that happens."

░▒▓██▓▒░

"Wait what?!"

Yeonjun woke up at eleven in the morning. Slept first, woke up last. And right when he perfectly caught Soobin talking – talking to no one, and so he immediately dispatched it to Soobin.

Soobin seemed serious, Yeonjun mustn't have bought it. He arched one brow, "Are you serious?"

Yes, Yeonjun is not one of the many who believes in the parallel universe as he is too scared to open a topic about it. He is scared of ghosts, end of discussion.

"Yes hyung, YJ is never been more serious in the morning," Beomgyu says, appearing in the dining area where Soobin and Yeonjun sit. Beomgyu is holding a pesto and some scrambled eggs he made himself. "Let's take our brunch now, I'm hungry."

Yeonjun whines, eyeing the pasta in front of him. "Tell me everything. Where'd it started?"

"Just last night." Soobin responds, and then he tells everything.

"His name is Hueningkai. You can call him Kai."

Kai has been holding his laughter as he looks at Yeonjun because of the way he reacts and talks. Soobin gives him a quick beam before turning to Yeonjun, "Here he is, meet Kai. Kai, this is Yeonjun. My not-so-great friend. The boyfriend of Beomgyu and the reason I'd always feel like a fish out of water whenever we are together." He puts his palm on his shoulder, which Yeonjun flinches.

"Oh gosh. This is really happening right?"

"You're right." Beomgyu laughs.

░▒▓██▓▒░

"I have the right to still get surprised whenever Soobin would talk or laugh out of the blue." Yeonjun reasons. He and Beomgyu are both lounging at the couch whilst Soobin and the ghost Kai are to climb upstairs, to the guest room where Soobin sleeps.

Beomgyu snickers. "Understandable. But you should get used to it, now that we live in a world where the parallel universe is certain here, you really should be fonder."

Kai can hear their conversation even at ten meters away. A ghost can hear sounds for twenty meters to the extent, which is why Kai has been able to cover unintentionally what they are talking about.

"Please don't be shy around anymore, Kai. You're our friend now. You'll be with me starting this day." Soobin smiles, sitting on his bed. "Yes, thank you, Soobin hyung." Kai replies.

"You know, a ghost remains in the other world at least one month and at most five months. If you have a month away, you're very lucky."

Kai nods, "Yeah?" He laughs. "So, should I know this all along?" Soobin smiled mirthlessly, shaking his head.

"I'm afraid not. It's the god who decides. We would never know when and we can never predict about it, too. It's best to stay vigilant and we do our part as long as you are staying here. That's why I'm here, to help you."

Help is an understatement to Kai. If only there is a bigger debt for him to give his exchange. Definitely, he would. "Hyung, I will make this worth it. And not just for me. But also for you." He places his palm on top of Soobin's. He can feel its warmth.

Soobin smiles. He has never felt his heart soften just as tonight. Had he realized just now that he's been staring longer than what he should be to the boy? Because Soobin can't resist the ethereal beauty of Kai, his features would always amaze Soobin over and over.

When Kai witnesses Soobin yawning, he knows what's next. "Take your rest, hyung. Tomorrow's another day for us."

_Another day for us._ Soobin smiles at the thought.

░▒▓██▓▒░

"GAH!"

Soobin jolts awake at dusk. With Kai staring straight into his eyes, wide-eyed. The duvet covering his shoulders drops down, he shivers at the cold coming front the air conditioner. Soobin puts it back up. Kai is there, just around the corner beside the bookshelf, he saunters toward Soobin, a concerned look gracing his face. "Are you having a nightmare?"

Soobin exerts a breath. "Kai..I was having a nightmare..damn it." He runs his fingers through his hair. Kai stands close, wants to sit beside, but shy enough to ask or do it. "Can- can I..?" He points.

"Of course, of course." Soobin pats the space, "Don't ask again next time."

Kai nods. "I don't hear you making any noise as you dreamt though. All of a sudden, you'd jolted awake."

"Is that so?" Soobin says, voice still husky. He rubs his hand on his face. "I don't remember what it was." He feels a bead of sweat trickling down his head.

When Soobin gets a nightmare, he would occasionally remember. Today's an exception.

"That's..weird.. I thought I was having a nightmare, but then I immediately can't remember it."

Kai chuckles, he wholly thinks it's no big deal. "Well, you're lucky you've wakened close to daylight. It's a fresh start of the day." Soobin studies Kai's face. Yep, he remembers -- ghosts can't sleep. He exhales, wonders how boring it would seem to just stand there and wait for another day to come.

Soobin decides to not fall back to sleep again.

He gets up, slipped on his fluffy blue bunny slides beside his bed and waddles to the bathroom. He mutters, "I'm just going to get ready for the day." Kai follows his steps with his eyes. A beam stretching on his mouth.

With waiting for Soobin, Kai's mind wanders to his own state. He can't shake off the feeling of being timid once again. _How would I know then? My purpose of resuscitating my life? How should I enlighten myself and Soobin so that we'd know what to do?_

Soobin reaches his bedroom door hotfoot, just stopping to turn his head back to Kai. "Come."

And at that moment, when Kai skips to get closer to him, his worries melt away.

Last night, Kai hasn't fully scanned the interior of the beach house. But now that they are sauntering as they take the alleyways, hallways, and the stairs, Kai catches a good glimpse of the small details. From the polished marble floors, grandeur ceiling lights, expensive paint frames and picture frames that decorate the spaces, Kai eventually concludes this isn't just an ordinary beach house from a wealthy family. The interior is modernized, all the colors and shades of gray, white, and cream are the majority of what Kai has been able to perceive.

The two talked and talked and talked. With Soobin preparing breakfast for three. Kai sits there on the kitchen nook. He peers intently on Soobin as he gets a pan, putting it on the stove. _every single thing in this house is luxurious and Kai wants to pile them all up in a bag and run away._

Kai finds himself sniggering at the thought. Just then, he can smell a whiff of butter. "Kai-yah, how do you feel now that ghosts can't sleep, even eat?"

Kai stares at the back of Soobin, averting to the tied ribbon from the apron he wears. "I think it's just fine. As long as I am not feeling the way you feel, you know? When you should eat you get hungry and when you needed sleep you are drowsy." Soobin laughs, "Makes sense."

The sun is slowly rising from the mountains and the sea as what Kai sees from the windows. Cooked breakfast food is already done, as they are being placed one by one on the dining table. "So you cook?" Kai questions, tilting his head.

"Yep." Soobin giggles.

"Your friends are lucky then. They have a cook of their own."

"Hell yeah, they are."

"Who's in charge of cleaning?"

"Both of them."

They laugh together. Soobin's lusty voice toning down longer. And then they talked again, talking about politics from their own worlds, how it felt like living there, what people and places look like there, comparing both worlds feel surreal, still surreal to Kai. And the person he's conversing belongs to another universe is just across and close to him.

Four ante meridiem comes with an hour later, until two hours later. That's the time the two other persons accommodating the same roof woke up. Soobin reheats all the food and they start to dig in. "What're the plans for today?" Yeonjun speaks up, slicing a part of his pancake.

Beomgyu points, "Go to Udo Island."

Yeonjun cheers, "I'm excited. What time are we going there again?" Soobin spanks him in the head, "Have you not been seeing our itinerary?"

"Ow." He rubs the part Soobin hit.

"I was always looking at our itinerary every hour and so." Beomgyu giggles playfully as he met the glare of his boyfriend. _Nope, can't side you today._

Beomgyu spurts syrup on his sliced pancake, puts some blueberry and strawberry on top, forks it up, and draws it near to Yeonjun's lips. Beomgyu opens his lips to make Yeonjun open it up too, which the latter willingly did.

Yeonjun is met with a flavorful pancake in his mouth. "Mmm.."

Soobin stares blankly at the pair. "Anyways, we should be there before ten. Get your asses ready before nine."

"Is it that far?"

"No."

"It would just take fifteen to thirty minutes to arrive."

Silence for a few seconds. They focus on munching their own food. Beomgyu makes noise, the kind when you realized something, his head bobs up, looking at Soobin. "How's you and Kai?"

"We're doing good. We are getting along pretty well, he's such a nice kid." Soobin grins, his eyes in crescents as he ruffles the boy's hair beside him. Yeonjun and Beomgyu sit there as they stare at Soobin.

The second day with Kai. Soobin can't wait for the next succeeding days to come to spend them with him. Will he be able to change Kai's fate? Will it just be Kai's or even to him too?

░▒▓██▓▒░

They arrive in Udo Island just as planned. Coded legibly in Beomgyu's writing on a hard piece of paper, it says 10 AM -- the exact (mostly) time they have landed. Soobin is eyeing his wristwatch that says 10:05. _This is not so bad._

Soobin felt relieved on slapping the boys' butts to urge them in preparing for their trip for the day. A sly smirk displays his face as he looks back at the couple beside him. "We're right on time."

The van slid its door open, revealing a grandiose landscape. So open that the blue sky hovering above exposes the sea and hills prettily and perfectly from their view. The boys did what they wanted to do there the whole day, taking their sweet, sweet leisure up for a ride on a bike, take a walk and cafe hops.

Beomgyu and Yeonjun informed Soobin they'd be having a date of their own. And so when Soobin is only left with Kai, the pair decided to go take long walks.

"What's your wish, Kai?" Soobin asks, looking ahead. As Kai surveys the place, it's just as the same as his world. Only the establishments and things in it differ. "I was unconscious when I have thought of my desires." Kai smiles to himself, thinking about all the good times he was alive. He thought of all the mishaps, even the heartaches he's surpassed. He thought of the face of the person he loves. "I want to recreate more wholesome memories with someone I love."

_With someone I love._ Soobin is curious if ever Kai has already one. But then that thought suddenly fades away when suddenly, Soobin's sole of his foot slid from the side of the asphalt. Has he been on the side all this time and he's not realizing it just now? But it's too late, because the misfortune got Soobin slipping outwards and below. He yelps in surprise and pain. Kai immediately encircles his arm on his waist. Both wide-eyed as they stare at each other, taking it too long for Kai to adjust his position and help Soobin not outbalance himself further. 

Soobin puts his hand on his chest. _That was so close._ A woman in concern inched close to him, "Are you alright, mister?"

"Y-yes, ahjumma. Don't worry about me, I'm fine." He bows. "I'm glad. I've seen you earlier, you have such good balance. If you were my son who's too reckless for his own good, he'd straight out get slipped away." She chuckles. "I'd be going then, be careful, okay?"

"Yes, thank you."

Soobin and Kai realized they'd been staring for a while now. They break the stare, scratching their napes. The only thing cutting off the silence is the chime from Soobin's phone, indicating a phone call.

"Soobin-ah! Where are you?" Soobin winces at the loud voice coming from the other line. Yeonjun is always loud. "Yah! Can your voice keep down? Are you in the market?" He rolls his eyes. Kai giggles. "We're here in the west seaside. Kai and I are just taking walks."

Soobin pauses as he hears a noise from the other line. "Call you later." The line ended. Soobin pockets the phone, Kai gives a curious look. "What was that?" Soobin shrugs, "Couple things."

"Let's sit here." Kai points to a space. When they are settled, Kai starts to speak about his life, the reason he firstly swam to the depth of the sea before he drowned. He speaks about his family, how foolish his parents can be -- too much of gaslighting at himself. That's why Kai would often cry himself to sleep late at night.

Soobin does too. How his life gets boring and boring as days pass without any progress from his literary writing. He wants to come up with an exciting plot, and he never found himself getting immersed in a certain storyline yet. How his life is full of third-wheeling on Beomgyu and Yeonjun. How his life can be so simple but is blessed with a loving mother and grandmother.

"You're very lucky you have a caring parent and grandma. I only have parents demanding their kids to do great in school, if not," Kai chuckles, "Get ready to be punished. And get ready to be grounded." He shuffles his feet to the black sand, "I had good grades until they drop for three points, I was then grounded for a whole month. No jam with friends, no going outside unless I make my score right."

Soobin grimaces. "That is horrible," he places his hand on his thigh, "I'm sorry for that." Kai shakes his head, laughing. "They should be the one to say that."

"You're eighteen right?"

Kai nods, "And you?"

How can an eighteen be this very matured already? To the way he speaks and moves. When Soobin was eighteen he learned how to be less mischievous together with Yeonjun and Beomgyu, when Soobin is the least mischievous of them three.

"Nineteen. Turning twenty next month."

"Cool," Kai smiles, "I hope I'm still here with you to celebrate your birthday."

Soobin smiles back. But all Kai was seeing was a sunrise to the blueness of the sky, illuminating light everywhere. Kai wasn't able to see through the dark anymore, but the glow coming from the face of the boy beside him. "Yes. I hope you would really do."

░▒▓██▓▒░

"We have to bring this, oh and these." Beomgyu practically shoved every object he sees into their backpack Yeonjun is holding in front. Yeonjun has a deadpanned expression lingering on his face. "Gyu, don't you think this is heavy enough?"

"I don't think so."

Yeonjun whines, "It's because you wouldn't be able to carry it." Beomgyu just laughs it off, "Fine. Evict some you don't want to bring." Yeonjun's frown disappears all of a sudden, his hands start to bring out every single thing Beomgyu recently put. The latter notices it eventually, and so Beomgyu smacks the forearm. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Getting rid of the heavy weighted things you put!"

"You just brought out everything!"

Beomgyu returns each one. The toiletries -- paper towels and wet wipes, underwears (for him and Yeonjun), a 500 ml water flask bottle, a pack of gummy candies, a hand towel, some extra clothes, and a liter of cola. And this is exclusive only for the two of them. Yeonjun starts to whine loudly, "Beomgyu, let's just bring some of the necessities please." He pinches the bridge of his nose.

"All of them are necessities."

Soobin has been eyeing the couple for a minute now. He got used of this, all the bicker and nags, the only extreme sport they usually do under any weather it brings them. But if Soobin were to insert, it's always fixed. But not now, not when especially Soobin isn't in the right mood to set himself in between the boys to ring the bell and signify them to stop just by with one glare of his eyes and a presumptive statement.

Fifth day in Jeju. Their itinerary says Soobin and the boys will go to Seongsan Ilchulbong. It will be a long ride from Yeonjun's beach house, but it will all be worth it after they arrive at the landmark. The boys will be able to encounter crater peaks formed by volcanic eruptions in all of the centuries that have passed. Yeonjun and Beomgyu already visited once, they had decided to visit again for the sake of Soobin.

Kai waits for Soobin and the others to pack. Soobin simply brings along a few of his things that will fit in his belly bag. He doesn't forget to bring with him his earbuds of course – the best friend for everything, a reason to shut the world's sound down.

Soobin sighs, zipping the bag of his across his belly. He flits his gaze towards the couple who is still squabbling. "For Pete's sake, these two." Soobin facepalms, "There's not a day they are not fighting." Kai laughs. Soobin looks really stressed about the couple, he finds them both adorable at the same time. He also heard that with just how much they argue, is also how much they make up for each other.

The sun is in its highest point in the sky once they have arrived in Seongsan Ilchulbong. Kai and Soobin walk side by side as they take their own small talks, not minding the charters coming from the pair behind them.

"Woah.."

Kai takes a scan of the space in front of them. There, the first crater lies ahead. It's amazing despite the hundreds of years it has been made and occurred the smell gives off pleasant instead of ash and bland hues.

"It's so pretty here." Kai declares, still in awe.

Soobin softly chuckles, patting himself because it is getting cold. Kai notices it and so he says, "It's cold. Haven't you brought some jacket?"

"I didn't."

Kai cooes, if only he has one with him -- if only he's like an ordinary person who can lend some clothing to warm Soobin, he would.

The boys stayed there for an hour of surveilling the landmark. Soobin and Kai enjoyed each other's presence, as if filling the gaps of each other's missing bliss. Soobin feels contented seeing the other laugh, the same way Kai would feel when Soobin would smile.

And when the time they walk out of the place, Kai mulls out the possibility of his revival. How long would this go? How much would it take for him to relive his normal life back?

░▒▓██▓▒░

Soobin and Kai get closer and closer with each other as time passes by.

The shyness in asking if it's okay to lie in Soobin's bed and to sit beside him when he lounges in his chair to watch a movie turns into a surprise from behind, making Soobin flinch and shriek in shock.

Every day changes. Soobin learns new information from the other about his life, and Kai learns about Soobin on the one hand. Lying just behind them is the resurfacing of Kai's promise of returning back to life after his pursual in the parallel universe. In Soobin's universe. The pair has almost forgotten about Kai's situation, just minding their own world where Soobin finds comfort in Kai's sweetness and Kai being overprotective of Soobin.

It's Saturday. The end of the fourth week when Kai appeared in Soobin's life.

Just in, the boys are situated in the living room, with Yeonjun and Beomgyu playing video games on the large TV screen. Soobin is on his phone when a bulb lit in his head. He informs the boys he'd be going on a grocery since he can't find the food he wanted in the fridge. Of course, wherever Soobin goes, Kai is there. A company to talk to and a company to have a shoulder on.

"Do you think I'll buy everything I want to, Kai?" Soobin asks. He checks his money balance on his e-wallet and it is not more than above average for his budget - one-third of his expenses have been flying away given by his mother.

Kai hums, thinking thoroughly. The door to the grocery slides open for them automatically. The once dark surrounding changes into a bright area. Soobin squints from the lights. "Just buy the important ones. Like the things you wanted to buy the most. And then you'd sort them, depending on how many products you just wanted to bring home."

Soobin agrees with him. They settled on what Kai had suggested. He only got sufficient grocery for the three of them, the only things Soobin ponders for a minute or two and then decides to take it back or bring it with him.

"I'm getting sleepy, oh gosh." Soobin mutters, giggling after. They are currently walking to the parking lot where their van awaits. Kai peers worriedly at Soobin, who's pushing the cart. He thinks it's no problem about Soobin carrying the four-wheeler as it is not too much weight to give so much effort to push. Kai wants to help.

But not until they have reached the vehicle. The driver puts all the paper bags inside and he and Soobin start to step inside. Soobin plops down the cushion, a seat away from the window. He pats the seat on his left – the seat in which the window is placed. "You're here." He mouths, and then he sends him a cheeky smile.

Kai would melt away all of a sudden.

The van pulls out, and Soobin yawns. Kai instantly beams, placing his hand on the boy's hair to make him lay on his shoulder. The taller one immediately drifts away, his lips slowly parts from each other and the next thing Kai could hear is his soft snores.

Ghosts can still feel anything like what humans can.

Kai feels the warmth of Soobin's skin pressing against his. How soft the locks of his hair is as he rakes them to one side.

And what is this Kai is feeling inside? Something churning indifferently from his stomach. Something weird even to feel whenever they're so close like this. When Kai touches Soobin. And when Soobin touches Kai. The stares with no definite words to explain, and not enough feelings to express. How would Kai be enlightened with all of this?

Kai blinks. Once and twice. And then it occurs to him that the driver is already announcing their arrival at the beach house. Kai gently shakes the other's arm, whispering against his ear to wake him up.

Soobin eyes shot up wide and he detaches easily from Kai, stretching his arms up. "We're here?" He says, still sleepy.

"Yes." Kai sweetly smiles.

Soobin definitely forgets the driver thinks it's just the two of them, and so the man replies, "Yes, sir. We have arrived just now." The driver opens up the door and went at the back to get the groceries.

Soobin initiates to get all the groceries and place them in their designated places inside the kitchen. When he's done, he and Kai climb up to his room. Soobin practically discards all his shoes, sweater, and windbreaker, and put them on the rack. He falls on the soft mattress, laying on his belly.

Kai trails behind, doing just as what he did. Now they are facing each other. Kai gazing at him lazily, Kai sending his sweet smile.

"Aigoo~ our Soobin is tired."

"We were in the grocery for an hour just because of me contemplating what to buy." Soobin giggles, closing his eyes. He can still feel the intent gaze from the younger. He feels a gentle pat on his hair, and another, and then another.

"Take a nap, Soobinnie~"

The whole day, Soobin and Kai watched two movies together, played an hour of Ps4 with Yeonjun and Beomgyu, no wonder Soobin's energy surrendered at eight in the evening as they arrived home. Kai leans closer, whispering softly, "Beomgyu and Yeonjun hyung said they'd cook right?"

Soobin hums. That's a relief.

"Wake me up when it's time for dinner, okay?" Soobin tries his best to sound clear, but it resulted in a sloppy tone. Kai snickers, patting his cheek and leans in even more until their faces are only some inches apart. "Sleep~" he says, in a lengthy way.

Kai waits for five minutes to make sure Soobin is already deep in his dreamland. He then goes out downstairs. He can still feel dumbstruck as he passes through walls and doors like all ghosts can and do. He learned that a ghost can pick up or touch an object if he wants to. But a ghost can't touch someone, unless it's someone chosen to change his fate.

He sees Beomgyu and Yeonjun getting...too clingy with each other. He can hear what they can say. "Soobin is not going to be happy if we cook late, hyung," "He can wait, jagi," "No," "Yes,"

Beomgyu softly pushes his boyfriend's arm that is snaking around his torso. To have a little breathe of air, at least. "Hyung, let's prepare for dinner." Yeonjun embraces him, sinking his head on the younger's chest. Kai picks up the 10×10 whiteboard, eraser, and whiteboard marker from the bookshelf. The way for him to talk with them. It has become a thing between them. He starts to write in neat characters.

After he's done, he makes sure the pair is able to notice the floating objects as they get closer to them. It takes a minute for them to witness. The couple paused and fixed themselves, sitting up straight. Beomgyu qualls, "Kai!"

Kai turns the board towards them. He waits for the pair to read it.

**I want to help you prepare dinner. Shall we begin?**

"Oh, of course, Kai-yah. Let's go." Beomgyu smiles, getting up. He sticks a tongue out to Yeonjun which the latter replies with a huff. Kai laughs, writing another phrase.

**Both of you are so cute**

░▒▓██▓▒░

Soobin's birthday is today.

Kai never forgets it, on the first day of May, he was planning a surprise with Beomgyu and Yeonjun as he tells them about it. It was not easy to brainstorm about the surprise party for him. It's his first time to insist on a surprise birthday party after all.

It's a lot of writing on the whiteboard until his hands start to get numb. It's the funny circumstances when the couple is not able to meet his eyes, the closest they could be are within his ears or nose.

In the end, it was Kai's suggestions and plans that have worked out. The boys said it was simple but very memorable, and Soobin will surely enjoy it most often.

"Soobin hyung is a very appreciative person, he will love our surprise, Kai." Yeonjun had said.

"He is the type to cry even at the simplest of things. Give him a small necklace and a bit of remembrance of a photo album, he'll cry a bucket of tears." Beomgyu had said.

The reassurances kept Kai confident in his work. He was practically skipping from the living room all the way to the bedroom -- where Soobin is still fast asleep. Any minute now, the older would get up as the clock strikes at exactly eight in the morning when Kai turned to look. He walks to where the windowsill is, where the glass windows are ajar, letting the cool breeze flow in the humid room. Kai looks down at the peaceful road emptied of people and the calm sea -- all illuminated by the moon and the streetlights. It is a beautiful scenery, still quiet and serene just like what Kai has imagined. Just like what he remembers the last time he was alive when he and his family were on that beach cottage. Kai's gaze cast down, the thought of Taehyun crawling in his system -- the sole reason he still wants to live invades his mind at this ungodly hour. Not later than ten minutes, Kai hears a muffling sound and then a shuffle. Kai is still facing his back from him, still overlooking the way the waves crash into the shore. 

"Kai?" Soobin's voice comes next. Well, amidst the serendipity of the ambiance, without Soobin in his sight, Kai is silent, all by himself -- but he overthinks a lot. When he's left alone, chaos starts appearing in his mind. Shrill noises blanket the stillness in his state. When Soobin is there with him, everything instills ecstasy, it's the feeling when you feel the lightest where all the problems suddenly disperse in the air.

The called boy turns, “Soobin hyung? Are you really awake?”

“I am.”

Kai chuckles, “I am just making sure, sometimes I am scammed with your sleep talking.” He watches Soobin sit up and rub his eyes. Kai remembers their agenda today, he won’t make it pass longer, he trudges to the bed, stopping right in front of the boy. “Today is a special day, hyung. You don’t want to miss a single thing.” Kai tips his toes, hands interlacing at his back.

“Yeah? I think I know whose it is.” Soobin grins.

Kai pushes him out from sitting, “Come on. Prep yourself, or else, I would be the one to do that.”

“Ahck – alright, alright!” Soobin stumbles, almost outbalancing himself due to Kai’s pushes. He waddles to the bathroom. In a while, Kai searches for a pen and a paper, brought them with him, and glides hastily to the kitchen. Reaching the said place, he sees Beomgyu and Yeonjun already setting the table. It also smells like luscious repast. Kai makes an indication that he is there by making four rhythmic taps from the wooden cabinet. Something all four of them know to tell that Kai is present at that particular area.

“Oh, Kai’s here.” Yeonjun looks behind him. Beomgyu, who’s placing utensils beside plates, looks over the direction of the sound. “Kai-yah, we are almost done.”

Kai starts to write over the blank page and shows it after.

**Soobin hyung’s up. In five minutes, he’ll go down. I will go back there!**

Kai glides up the stairs to Soobin’s room. Once he gets there, Soobin is making up his bed. He can hear the quiet hums of a song he can’t decipher what. He waits for Soobin to finish organizing his bed as he stands there by the door. Has his smile been there that only now Kai has realized?

“That’s weird,” Soobin chuckles, “I always feel your presence without looking.” Soobin softly says, he’s done with the making of his bed, and he’s on his way to Kai. The younger’s cheeks rise from his growing smile, lips tight. Soobin asks with raised brows, “Let’s go?”

“Wait,” Kai touches his arm, biting his lip, “I have something to say.” Soobin inches his head forward, anticipating.

Kai looked into the round, curious eyes, not knowing he would get lost for a second before he utters two words in a sheepish manner. “Happy Birthday.”

Soobin giggles giddily, as if mindlessly, he puts his arm around the boy and embraced him in a bone-crushing hug. He gets shy that his drumming heart can be felt against his chest. “Thank you, Kai.” They lean back. Are the sun rays too warm it burns in a nuisance at the back and neck of Soobin or was it the weird feeling creeping up his nape?

“Come, we have a surprise for you.” Kai holds his hand. Gingerly he tugs at it as they climb the stairs. Kai hears Beomgyu and Yeonjun screeching discreetly from the dining room. He holds a peal of laughter. As they step inside the dining room, Soobin firstly sees a table occupied with food. And then all of a sudden, he flinches hard from the party popper being released near his side. With a hand on his chest, Soobin inanely looks at Yeonjun holding the party popper – who’s chortling.

“Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you.” The three of them sing in an unusual rhythm – they sing this good? Soobin thinks it’s just today. Kai’s voice overlaps all of their mixed voices though they blend well. Kai’s honey-like voice endearing the ears of Soobin once again. This time, in an augmented, flamboyant manner. Soobin finds Beomgyu filming him and around the room with his phone, and oh boy, he is just wearing his pajamas! He never thought the surprise would get up to this point.

“Hey, put that down! I am not ready for this—”

“Not every birthday boy is ready for the surprise.” Beomgyu declares, laughing afterward. Soobin scrunches his nose.

For the whole morning, all they did was celebrating Soobin’s birthday inside the dining and the living room. The whole meal was full of a flushing red Soobin because of the way Kai would momentarily feed him food; he would lowkey shy away even if he takes the offers quietly.

Soobin reaches for his pocket, and when he did, the three boys find themselves staring at a safety pin and a heart-shaped yellow paper with a ‘Kai’ written on it. “I forgot to put this on you,” he says, clipping the material on the fabric of Kai’s clothe. Yeonjun’s face lit up, “Oh, I think I get it! To let us know where Kai is located, right?” Beomgyu puts a hand over his torso, he presses, “It is a simple expression of our Soobinnie’s love to Kai.” He beams, putting a hand on his chest as if touched.

Soobin snorts, “Yeonjun hyung is right. This is an indication of where Kai is to be heading.”

“Hyung, how thoughtful of you to do this, I mean, really, I have never thought of this!” Kai says, laying a hand on the paper. Soobin shrugs, “I have also just thought about it just earlier.”

When with Soobin, minutes turn to seconds, hours turn to minutes. Time feels like stretching out of an overdue upshot ready to finish steadfast. If only there weren’t any more nights where Kai would wait rather patiently for Soobin to open his eyes again, where nights feel like an eternity. Where Kai has to resist not be irked under the eight long hours of Soobin’s sleep.

The hands of the clock tell them it’s the start of the afternoon, and this is when the plan is to put Soobin inside his room until four in the late noon.

“Let’s have our time together,” Kai said. “And I have a present for you there.”

░▒▓██▓▒░

“I’m getting irked here.” Soobin whines after three hours. His head hangs low on the bed. Kai beside him. ”Why would we even stay here until four?”

“Because it is a secret.”

Soobin sits up, he shakes Kai’s arm. “Tell me, tell me.”

“I have a gift for you, remember? I am yet to give it to you.”

Another whine. Soobin huffs out a breath and reaches for the remote of the TV, switching it on. “What has been taking it so long? Is it that grand?” _It’s too grand allegorically speaking_. Kai says in his mind.

“It’s a secret.”

Soobin doesn’t bother firing questions anymore, gluing his eyes on the TV screen. He doesn’t realize himself getting his eyes droopy and fall asleep fast. Kai is there again, alone with his thoughts.

_“You know I love you, right?”_

_It is a memory. Taehyun speaking to him as they lie side by side on his own bed. It was a month before Kai and his family gets to have a vacation – and where Kai’s pursual starts to exist the next month to come unknowingly, unforeseen. The look Taehyun is giving is the type to haze one’s own vision, if Kai is drunk right now, the soju would be Taehyun himself._

_“Yes.” Kai closes his eyes for a while, feeling a pair of arms cradling him. Legs entangled together, the weather perfectly conditioned throughout the room was a perfect ambiance._

_“And if you leave me, I’d forbid you for it.” The way Taehyun sternly said it pulled the corners of Kai’s lips to a grin. “I won’t. If the future separates us, I’d get back to you eventually.”_

Does it ever felt strange to the feeling of reminiscing the memory Kai must have been treasuring and keeping on a sealed urn securely? Where not one grime has to drizzle in? The moment of perplexing fills in Kai’s stance. His blank gaze to the wall transfers to the napping boy. Kai pauses, as if his breath was snatched, as if the heavens above and the ground collided.

_“You are my loved one, I can never let my most loved one get away from me.” The Kai in his videocassette tape memory has declared with so much determination._

Kai’s lungs constrict. _I badly needed my Taehyun, can this pursual end sooner?_

░▒▓██▓▒░

_Click_.

Hearing the door close halts Beomgyu and Yeonjun from their movements. They expect Kai has already put on a blindfold to Soobin and that they are now going in the living room – which is now packed with decorations. Several purple, violet, white, and silver balloons can be seen around, designed accordingly on a certain wall, some stuck, some floating. A round cake is at the center placed on top of the coffee table. Soobin’s mother, some of his relatives, Yeonjun, and Beomgyu’s family are there. Beomgyu climbs up the stairs to (help) escort.

Soobin cannot wait to get rid of all the phosphates he is just seeing from his closed eyes. When he feels the tie is slowly disentangling, and the fabric is completely discarded, Soobin’s heart leaps in joy and surprise – for the first thing he saw were the genial faces of his mother and his relatives, trying to not make a sound and then shouts a “happy birthday!” after a second of putting out the blindfold.

“Oh my gosh.” Soobin covers all of his face with both hands.

“AH!” His body stoops backward from surprise because of the sound of the party poppers. Great. Not these again. Kai laughs, too amused of seeing Soobin relentlessly shaking his hands. Hoots then resonate the perimeter, loud birthday-themed music came blasting from the speakers. Soobin’s mother walks close to him, “Happy birthday, my dear boy.” She embraces him.

“Now this is a surprise, huh.” Soobin giggles, earning a pinch on the nose from Mrs. Choi.

Soobin receives every greeting from each of his family members, giving them cheek-to-cheeks and subtle hugs. Kai stands not far from him, watching the way he interacts with his relatives with his crescent eyes, already in their fullest glow. This is what Kai wants, to see Soobin smile at the beginning, and to see him smile on his last day with him. Soobin isn’t surprised about how his paper heart is suddenly detached from him. And Kai discerns it from the look in Soobin’s eyes. They already understand each other without speaking, with just the look in their eyes and small gestures.

“Soobin-ah!”

Yeonjun and Beomgyu call their best friend. They are huddled in a corner together with their other friends. Alcohols in the middle.

“What’s been taking you so long, bud? Join us here, birthday boy!” One friend says. It was Hyunjin.

Soobin plops down the cushion next to Yeonjun, he slightly tilts his head to Kai – who’s folded his arms on the crest rail, resting the side of his head on it and smiles at him. Soobin can hear him saying, _“Join them! Have a little fun, I’m okay here.”_

As he flits his head back in front, he is welcomed with his shot glass already waiting to drink. All the noises the people around him make feels so silent. Soobin’s spirit is still leaning on Kai at the back. Kai can join here too, he could let the person beside him – Wooyoung to leave some space for Kai to sit in. If only they knew. If only Soobin has all the energy and willpower to enlighten the people in oblivion here.

But does time feel so slow at this hour? At the passing hours? Every intersperse of events happening around the beach house was loud and scattered and chaotic. Not when Soobin finally sees the time on the clock that read twelve midnight. Not when the visitors start to pack up and are preparing for their departure. And has Soobin ever felt reprieved.

“Goodbye, darling. See you in two weeks?” His mother said, caressing his head, letting it stay like that for a while before she steps out and into the car. “I will see you in two weeks eomma, goodbye! I love you.” Soobin states. He pushes the door close. He stares at her face before the car zooms out of his sight, pulling up from the driveway.

“Your mother looks so much like you.” Kai pushes his hands back in his pockets. “I could see you in her, you have the very same personality.” Soobin huffs a chuckle. The starry night dwells in with the lamp posts, he can see his shadow casting on his side. “I hear that a lot.” Soobin reaches for his hand to lead them inside the house where Yeonjun and Beomgyu are cleaning up.

“I have a surprise for you, hyung.” Kai says when they enter the living room, Soobin widens his eyes, “You still have one?”

Kai smirks, “Of course.”

“But..I still have to help them.” He gestures to Yeonjun and Beomgyu. Yeonjun is putting away plastic cups and all other trash into a trash bag Beomgyu is holding. Yeonjun just waved his hand while shaking his head. Beomgyu is nodding with his half-closed eyes. He hears Kai giggle beside him, “They knew.. so come here now.” He pushes past him and onto the flight of stairs.

Soobin watched as Kai pull out something from his nightstand drawer. Soobin purses his lips from the sight – Kai getting the video camera and its gimbal stabilizer. Firstly, he puts on some eyeglasses and entwined a scarf around his neck. He also puts on black gloves, Soobin’s shirt, and pants. Kai begins by recording himself and then bringing the camera to Soobin.

It occurs to Soobin that Kai must be good at vlogging too. Kai can do anything. He can sing, dance, play instruments, play football and basketball, can draw. There is no such thing Soobin would be getting more surprised if Kai has to help him mold a story to write.

After a series of storytelling and the times Soobin just blankly gazing at the younger, Kai finally says, “And now, for the gift!”

Kai crouches beneath the bed, when he stands up, Soobin gapes at what he is holding – blue fluffy bunny ears and a carrot stuffed toy about the size of an ordinary adult hand. In lieu of getting embarrassed, Soobin finds himself giggling. Kai radiates all the adorableness within him, that he was able to make others receive it too. Kai puts it for him, the bunny ears suiting perfectly on his face and letting the carrot hold to Soobin.

Kai is struggling from holding the camera upwards to waddling here and there, turns out he was finding Soobin’s phone, and when he does, he plays a song Soobin doesn’t know of, and there came Kai’s soothing singing voice.

_Open my eyes_

_And I'm runnin' late_

_Startin' my day catchin' sleep while hair dries_

The song is instrumental, guitar strumming, and the sound of the original singer blending perfectly with Kai’s voice. Kai’s voice is like crystals and opals coming together right on your hands, when you tilt them, iridescence emit even if there’s an absence of light. That’s what Soobin is feeling right now, his ears are too blessed. Soobin sits there, feet swinging back and forth, getting fond of the catchy song. He also notices the lyrics.

_He's a little bit shy_

_A little bit hurt_

_And you can relate_

_So don't feel so alone_

Soobin could shout if Kai is on the stage, his seat unattended from getting unoccupied for standing up for the whole performance. Soobin just cheering him up, Soobin just hooting and applauding together with Beomgyu and Yeonjun. But tonight is a quiet, almost bushed out evening, yet the sounds he listens to at the moment gives a replenish in Soobin’s exhaust.

How Kai’s long lashes flutter close when he would sing a line that requires a high pitch, how Kai would smile sheepishly when he catches Soobin staring at him.

_Then you fall for the way_

_That you feel, when he's friend in your eyes_

_Cheers you up so incredibly_

As the song comes to an end, and Kai’s voice fades out, Soobin finds his voice impulsively.

“You have the most beautiful voice I have ever heard.”

░▒▓██▓▒░

Days were fleeting away in an inhumane speed when Kai and Soobin are enjoying time with only themselves. For a month, the boys stayed in Jeju as their vacation, and now they all part again and Soobin meets his mother in their estate.

“Kai?”

Kai looks at Soobin, head tilted to the side. He is here. Can’t he see him?

“Soobin-hyung! I’m here!”

“Oh.” Soobin smiles, waving his hand for Kai to get close. “Didn’t see you there, come here.”

And has Kai also noticed that Soobin would not see him when Kai is literally at least a meter away? How many times since the last week? Five? Six?

“Hyung, I was literally just in front of you.” Kai giggles, but there’s no sincerity there.

Soobin’s brows met in a furrow, he shuts his phone off and brings it down the bed. He is now straightly looking at Kai who is sitting beside. “I also am noticing about it ever since.”

Though Soobin can say it’s close to the end of Kai’s pursual. The glitching? The sudden disappearance? Won’t it just come to reach far from Kai getting closer to his body? The one Kai and he himself were waiting all this time? He’s afraid, afraid of what comes next. But why is he feeling afraid?

Soobin blinks. And then beams slowly.

“Kai, when it’s time for a spirit to get back to his body, it glitches for a moment, maybe a bit longer.”

A pin-drop silence. Does Kai feel the way Soobin feels too right now? If silence is a response, then what does it really portray? When Soobin keeps his mouth zipped as an answer, it mostly is understood as a _yes,_ and rarely _no._ It’s easy to read Kai, but it’s not easy this way when he doesn’t say anything.

“Soobin-hyung, when do you think would be my time?” Soobin recognizes the tone with a hint of excitement which he vehemently tries to replicate. “In an hour, if the ghost glitches longer than usual, and repeatedly does so in that string of time, then that’s the time.”

Kai reminisces on the number of times he has glitched. The only surest he had been to conclude was six times today. This afternoon.

░▒▓██▓▒░

It is a rather tranquil evening for both Kai and Soobin. They are hanging out on his bed as usual. There are laughters here and there. It was a trade of storytelling and a number of dad jokes to one another. Since the day they have realized on Kai’s reaching end of pursual, today’s the fifth day. And Kai has been glitching for more than five seconds. They are counting all the glitches. They marked now as day 5.

Day 1 – 6

Day 2 – 8

Day 3 – 9

Day 4 – 12

Day 5 – currently 15

“What would you do after you have finally resuscitated?” Soobin feigns a smile as he questions. They both are lying on the bed, shoulders touching.

“Of course, make it up for my parents and to..someone.” Kai replies, his voice getting softer as the sentence ends. Soobin tilts his head, “Hm? Who’s that someone?” He tickles his side, Kai yelps. It could be a bully or the one he bullies, or anyone he hasn’t been repenting to. Or it may be someone he loves, but Soobin is not ready for that conversation yet. “I’d be more than grateful, hyung. But I’ll miss you.” He pouts.

“I’m going to miss you too, Kai.”

There goes Soobin again, patting his hair ever so gently. Like Kai is a baby wanting to fall asleep, the one who would yearn for the most tender touch. Kai wonders, if he has his body right now, was his heart beating vehemently just like when he is with Taehyun?

And what was that? Has Kai only realized just now of Soobin’s dispirited tone when he said those last words before he enters his dreamland – when Kai is having the desire to still feel the soft pats on his head until the other gets drowsy? How interrupted was he from Soobin’s stare?

Will Kai let himself be interrupted until it all gets away at once?

░▒▓██▓▒░

Kai loves his plans for today with Soobin. Bake a cake. It’s a cool evening, Soobin is all alone in the house. His mother is away to be reunited with her friends. It’s the perfect time to be with Soobin alone.

When it’s the first time for someone to bake, it’s usually muddled especially in the end, sprinkles of batter everywhere on the counter or on the floor, empty packets litter around, utensils left unattended, and even incorrect procedures. But in Kai’s first time, it wasn’t. Soobin is impressed. He’s thinking if it was just because of the way he taught or Kai being the fast learner he is.

Right now, they are currently decorating their cakes with icing. Kai smiles at the product he has made. A heart-shaped vanilla cake frosted with blue frosting. He contemplates on what design to put and when he concludes on something, he finally gets the marshmallows and M&M’s.

He has been glitching frequently. He and Soobin counted 15 times already. Kai is on the verge of putting the last two marshmallows to fill in the rabbit’s ear when he suddenly disappears out of Soobin’s sight. Kai sighs, continuing what he is doing. Now it looks like Soobin had some enchantment in doing some work done. The cake decors itself, gingerly completing the product. Both have promised not to look onto each one’s work until they are done. No one breaks that promise.

Pinky fingers as a promise can be true too, in the case of Kai and Soobin’s.

“Soobin-hyung, can you see me now?”

No response, Soobin didn’t look into his direction. That just means Kai isn’t back with his normal form yet. Kai’s lips curl downwards, placing his fingers on the side of the cake’s platter, turning it absentmindedly. He’s satisfied with his work, he thinks it’s perfect. There’s a three-layer of M&M’s chocolate candies on the sides, outlining the surface, and a rabbit’s head in the middle – formed with the use of marshmallows. Kai also tried on melting white chocolates and then reshaping them into small hearts, he decorated them onto the sides.

Kai gets frustrated all of a sudden, because he can’t eat the cake, he can’t eat what Soobin has made too.

He hears Soobin whining, “Kai, it has been a minute now, you’re still not here.”

“I’m still here, you can’t just see and hear me hyung.” Kai presses. He gets sadder and sadder. Kai stares at Soobin to know if he can already see him.

Soobin’s brows raise and his lips twitch in a toothy grin, “Kai! I can see you now!”

Kai giggles, “Yey!”

“I am already done with my cake,” Soobin is eyeing his cake before turning back to Kai. His smile falters into a straight line when he witnesses Kai glitching incessantly. His heart begins to throb unimaginably, his cake now forgotten as he lopes to Kai to touch him. “Kai, y-you’re glitching too much.”

Soobin sees Kai for a second and then he disappears, he goes back again and then disappears again. Kai’s lips part, feeling desolated. “No, no..”

Kai presses his hands firmly on Soobin’s. But he can still touch him. “Hyung, can you hear me?”

“I – yes, I can hear you, Kai-yah.”

Something in Soobin’s tone flipped his heart. It soared not too high as it dropped as if it’s an anchor to the bottom of the ocean. Kai must be hearing it right, Soobin is getting frantic and desperate. When the last thing Kai would have wanted for Soobin is to see him like that.

“Hyung, I-I don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t worry Kai,” Soobin thinks, “Where do you want to go?”

Kai’s lips tremble. “Here. I want here.”

“I mean, we’d transfer to a place here in my home,” Soobin places his hands on his. The gentlest caress of it all. Somehow next to Taehyun, “Where we can patch things up and then preparing ourselves for your retreat.”

_Retreat_. Kai suddenly gets the most bitter of the word from now on. Soobin is grateful that Kai is not glitching this time. Kai tightens Soobin’s hold. “To your room?” Soobin nods. They run to it immediately. Every step Soobin takes was heavy, the sides of his eyes blurry.

It could be right now or later, but Soobin hopes this would last longer. He and Kai can still be together until tomorrow, there can be a possibility, right?

As they sit there on his bed knee to knee, Soobin breaks the quietness. “I’m happy Kai, so happy that you would reunite with your body once again.”

Why can’t Soobin smile like any other days? His smile right now is strained like it was attached to a string and then pulled by force. Kai’s face on the one hand, is still bright as ever, like any other days. This is what Kai wants, to bring back his normal self, Soobin should be happy. Soobin should. Soobin could. Soobin couldn’t. “Hyung, I can’t express it – my feelings right now. I can’t express it in words nor pictures, I – I am going to be alive like a human soon.”

“Yes, yes you would. You can live better now. You had the chance you can get at last.” Soobin is rubbing Kai’s forearm. “If your last day is tonight, what would you do?”

Kai thinks, head tilting up. “Of course, have all the time spent with you, and with Yeonjun and Beomgyu hyung.”

Kai glitches.

“To be frank, hyung, I also don’t want to go, you know. Because I will miss you a lot.”

“Hyung will miss you a lot too.” Soobin can’t suppress his tears anymore, and they fall helplessly on his cheeks. “Oh no, don’t cry.” Soobin chuckles at how effortlessly cute Kai is, hands flapping in front. His eyes are also getting misted.

Soobin feels like wailing anytime soon, he wants to. But he doesn’t want to. For Kai.

He is stuttering with the next words he’s about to say, he’s panicking in the inside, seeing Kai glitching consistently. “I want you to know how much I became happy when you came, back then I had never laughed so hard, smiled until my muscles get tired until you appeared. You don’t know how you have changed my life, Kai.”

Kai’s lips quiver, eyes enlarging to refrain from crying. “Hyung, you’re making me more crestfallen than ever.”

Soobin rubs his forearm, “Release it out.” He nods to him encouragingly. Kai knows what it is, Kai knows he can show it before it gets too late.

The younger bursts into tears. Soobin cooes, bringing him into an embrace. He rubs his back in circle motions. It’s difficult, more than difficult to hold back tears to Soobin – he’s trying his best. “We will – we –“ Kai glitches three times. Soobin starts crying again, but quietly and discreetly as he can though his body shows otherwise – it is quivering.

“We will find each other again, I will find you after you’d leave me.”

“Hyung, I don’t want to go, but I also want to see them.”

Five glitches in just two seconds.

“Soobin hyung, I – ” nth glitch. Soobin’s cries get louder, “Kai, please hold on, don’t leave me.”

Soobin feels nothing anymore in his touch, he is now hugging himself. He pauses, flailing his hands in the space before him, “Kai? Where are you?” Did he leave already? Or is this another precursor?

“Kai?!”

Is this really it? The ending to both Kai from the parallel universe and him? Kai’s last words – what were those? Why is it hard for Soobin to accept that Kai would be leaving soon? His chest tightens and tightens, it’s making himself hard to breathe. There’s a lump in his throat that feels like collapsing from how large it is. If Kai never comes back, Soobin will be wrathful to himself.

“Kai..come back, please.”

Just then, he feels something touch him, it’s Kai. “Hyung, paper in your desk.” Soobin registers on what he has said. All at once – Soobin is still processing that Kai is back, how he would want to rejoice, ask him to reiterate what he had said, and cry again. But Soobin finally understands what he was trying to say. So he goes to where his desk is located, looking back at him to confirm which the latter nods. Soobin hastily opens the drawer, there he finds a folded paper. He unfolds it.

When Soobin turns his back again, Kai is still there, luckily. His fond smile growing as Soobin sprints towards him. “Open it hyung, when I am not around anymore.” He holds his hand. It lingers there.

“Kai,” Soobin whines dejectedly, “Don’t make me cry like a spoiled kid.” The younger giggles. But when Soobin hears this, it’s like it belonged to an angel. A heavenly sound, too pure for Soobin’s deviant ears.

Kai, on the one hand, has his hands on his combusting chest – not wanting to spread the fire further. If life has to make you choose one place to settle in, Kai thinks he won’t be the best person to question. He doesn’t know the answer anymore. Maybe never.

Soobin couldn’t afford watching him anymore – Kai fades out little by little, getting more transparent. But he has to, he has to spare himself one last look at the boy. His one last smile, one last words to say, one last touch. Kai reaches for his palm and presses it on his cheek. This is how it feels – the warmest skin on top of his. One last time, one last linger to let it yearn forever.

“Goodbye, hyung.”

“I will miss you, Kai. I will tell you now this – I have something in mind for a storyline to create, and this is because of you.” Soobin says, endearingly stroking the younger’s cheeks, he could feel the dried tears. “Farewell, Kai-yah, I –“ Soobin hasn’t uttered the sentence fully for Kai has already vanished.

Soobin’s eyes squint in melancholy, tears continuously flowing down. He mutters the words he couldn’t believe he will only hear himself. “I love you.”

Soobin has made a decision already, that he will write their story on the most beautiful paper he could find and bind it. So it only takes a pursual occurrence for Soobin to make one? And that it is such a dreadful, heart-wrenching one. This is how it goes and feels for a rigid journey of a person trying to find someone perfect for him. It is short but cherishing, tragic but beautiful. It will make you eccentric but it makes you whole. Only that it felt like you’re torn apart when the other leaves you. This is the only story Soobin can tell in the haps of his pages, the story flows like wind blowing through the windows and then turning down a lamp, that will soon bring the house on fire. Soobin finds the story disconcerting, but once upon a time, there was a best part in it that it can’t be found in another story.

_I will write a story of you and I. Where I can find refuge for. Where all my joy and pain land on the safest places in your arms._

░▒▓██▓▒░

The day when Kai gets back in his body after a month, he was met with a different environment. Unusual unlike the parallel universe. Unlike where Soobin lives in. The familiar faces that he missed were there, exulting from his return. Taehyun welcomes him in open arms. Lots of kisses on the forehead, lots of cheek kisses, and of course, a little peck would do. How happy has he been? Probably exceeding from what he could only measure by his hands. Kai went back to normal, only that by now, he did better. He became more active in school, gets to interact more with others, gets to join more clubs, gets to be more open with his family.

There is this one thing though, bugging his mind at least once a day. Soobin. The boy who revived him. The boy whom he would trade off any galaxy just to be with him. The boy whom had also made him feel like what he has felt with Taehyun. But it didn’t dive into an open conversation – an aggravating thing to happen to him. Is it because Kai is scared? Because he already has one person he is sure enough he’d love for eternity, but oblivious to how his feelings have grown as he met Soobin and just let it crawl until it eats him alive? Kai hopes there could be another chance for him to redo it. He’d do it right because Soobin deserved of knowing.

░▒▓██▓▒░

It has been three days since Kai left for good. Soobin is surprisingly doing well, he just has started with his short story yesterday, but it felt like an eternity just writing it. One time he was tidying up his room when he founds a small paper inside his notebook. Just the handwriting of it would already let Soobin know whose it was.

**Kai’s Wishlist**

**☐ Go back to my body**

**☑ Eat deliciously**

**☑ Swim**

**☑ Run like there’s a dog chasing you**

**☐ Drink with someone special**

**☑ Sing to him**

**☑ Make him laugh once a day**

**☑ Bake him a cake**

**☐ Dance with him**

**☐ Shop with him**

**☑ Go to a grocery with him**

Soobin’s heart throbs twice. He doesn’t want to assume that ‘him’ is him, but wouldn’t it be nice at least, to wear that shoe?

As he picks it up, another paper slipped behind. When Soobin takes a longer look, he widens his eyes. Relief washing over his physique. As if salvation entered his spirit.

**Kai’s Addresses:**

**2123 Randall Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii**

**78-4, Yongsandong 6(yuk)-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul**

**西三** **环北路5** **号中国中元国** **际工程公司医疗院建筑一所**

░▒▓██▓▒░

“Are you sure you won’t be needing me there?”

Taehyun asks from the phone. Kai bites his lip, “Yes. I am busy, hyung. I have a lot of errands today.”

“Okay, as what you’ve said,” he giggles, “Bye, see you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow.”

The line ends. Kai pockets his phone, looking ahead at the door in front of him. He had searched for days about this, he won’t miss it longer. He presses on the doorbell, not being too adamant. The door opens, revealing a familiar face he’d once adored. A smile creeps on Kai’s face slowly.

“Hi, Soobin-sshi.”

░▒▓██▓▒░  
  


Soobin follows what the list says. Firstly, here in Seoul. But unfortunately, he wasn’t there. Soobin bought a flight to China, still, there’s no sign of Kai. The last location he will be heading to will be farther away, but he wishes this could be the one. He is thankful that his mother agreed with this and that in a few days, they will arrive in Honolulu, Hawaii soon.

He does find a Kai Kamal Huening on social media but there weren’t any address nor location that is indicated. And just how frustrated and desperate had it been to Soobin. He saw real photos of ordinary Kai – Soobin swears, it’s all different from spirit Kai. Kai looks more stunning with color. Soobin does expect it, but he is still astonished until now.

Soobin continues to write the story. Some scenes are heavy for him that he would momentarily halt for a drink of water, deep breaths, or even a nap. He knows where it’s going and where it will be going, every detail, every chance of happenings – the turn of events still fresh inside his mind. They haunt him, but he has gotten used to it. He still would get melancholic and sentimental but what can he do? He just has to let it pass and take over him, not unless if he does one thing.

Just like what Kai has done since they first met, unexpectedly and definitely not by coincidence, they were introduced to each other. So why not make it happen today, too?

When Soobin finally arrives in the said place in Hawaii, he can feel his heartbeat against his chest and neck. The estate is zooming in onto them and he has never been more nervous, his hands sweating and his lips drying as to why he would moisten them to retain its color and look.

As they wait for someone to acknowledge them, Soobin turns to his mom, “Eomma, how do I look? Is my hair okay?”

She giggles, “Honey, you’re finer than you could ever imagine..oop, someone’s already coming.”

Soobin is on the verge of calming his composure when he sees a man walking closer to the closed gates. He is tall and has a defined jaw and has blue eyes, Soobin will lose it if he is not here. And if he is not here, then what now? He won’t ever find Kai anymore? Would it take hundreds of months to finally find him?

“Hi, what is it that you’re looking for?”

“Hello, is this the Huening residence?” Soobin asks. Putting his hand at his back and makes a crossed finger. _Please, please, please._

“Yes. Why?”

Hearing this has made Soobin do a little dance in his mind. He isn’t able to answer, so his mother did it for him, “This is my son, by the way, sir. And he is looking for Kai Kamal.”

“Oh..would you like to go inside?”

Time is fast to happen, seconds turn to milliseconds if Soobin is to encounter Kai. His hands profusely sweat, he would have to press it against his clothes. As the door to the house opened and they are greeted with a humid living room, Soobin instantly makes good long eye contact with the one and only – Kai. He is sitting on the couch on his phone.

He looks different, so much more different in person – it’s a good different. Soobin can finally see the true colors radiating within the boy.

“Kai, there’s someone looking for you.”

This is a new, fresh start. A rather ending he wanted will finally befall, and it commences today. And that’s it. Soobin’s stomach churns weirdly again. He then hears an angel’s voice for the first time again, and it comes from the same angel he has been with. Although it was arbitrary and austere, Soobin was sent in cloud nine.

“Huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> you've reached the end, congrats! 
> 
> and thank you so much for reading <3
> 
> if you enjoyed it, comment down and a little kudos is more than appreciated hehe 
> 
> __
> 
> FUN FACT OF THE STORY:
> 
> Soobin, in Kai's world, was the one who saved him from drowning. Turns out that he was there too, having a little vacation the same place as Kai's. 
> 
> follow me on Twitter, lend me your thoughts & be updated with me on txt related things: @beominure 
> 
> also follow my sis! @binnietobinie 
> 
> In Another Universe Playlist
> 
> get u a bunny - suggi
> 
> this love - taylor swift
> 
> 8 letters - why don't we
> 
> sometimes - chelsea cutler
> 
> nap of a star - tomorrow x together


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